Beauty Loot: Drugstore Stuff I've Been Liking

Hey there! This is just a quick post (it seems a lot of my blog entries these days are "quick posts" heh) about new drugstore finds that I've been using and liking. I haven't been using these products a long time so I don't have much to say about them yet, but just consider this as a first impressions kind of thing. Here we go.

Clothes Spin: Orange and Brogues [Throwback Thursday]

Hello! I haven't done a Throwback Thursday look post in a while, so I decided to post one today.

Lately I've been missing a bunch of things from my closet that have since fallen apart. I'm searching for replacements, but I know that I just have to let it go. Fashion can be so fleeting sometimes! In this post are a couple of well-loved pieces - an orange shirt and beige brogues.

Orange shirt from The Ramp, Relic watch, beige Zara belt, Bench jeans, Forever 21 brogues  

Clothes Spin: Gray Dress Love [Flashback Friday]

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year!

It's also Flashback Friday, so it's fashion flashback time to one of my favorite dresses, a gray Forever 21 frock. I was wearing the exact same dress yesterday, so here's a look at all the other times I wore it. (I'm not a celebrity who doesn't repeat clothes. I wear them until they fall apart! Also, Kate Middleton and Michelle Obama are my idols when it comes to this.)

Date Night

The dress is too short and sheer not to be worn with leggings/tights. When I'm feeling girly, I just wear it with flats.

Forever 21 gray dress with black belt, Una Rosa leggings, black flats (forgot where I got them), Longchamp LM Metal bag in Steel

Fashion Candy: Back to Heels

When the new year rolled around and I was looking back on 2013, it hit me. I haven't been wearing heels. I scrolled through the memories in my brain and realized that I only wore heels last year when there was something out of the ordinary -- parties, job interviews, prenup shoots, debuts, weddings. I couldn't remember any regular days when I made the effort to dress up and wear heels.

The thought bugged the hell out me. I love heels! What happened?

Looking back now I'm discovering that although I wore heels a lot in my twenties, I practically stopped wearing them when I hit my thirties. That was when I developed a love for flats of all sorts -- moccasins, ballet flats, sandals, brogues, loafers, and oxfords -- and of course I never outgrew my sneakers. Don't get me wrong. I still bought heels -- I just didn't wear them much. 

Aside from the obvious fact that heels can be tough (they're not as comfortable as flats, they can be hard to walk in, etc.), I reckon I stopped wearing them because they require effort to wear. I feel like I have to get dressed up to wear them, and since my 2013 uniform consisted mostly of jeans and t-shirts, I didn't feel like wearing heels at all. In a way, me not wearing heels is directly related to the fact that I didn't make much of an effort to dress up last year. 

Gray and blue strappy heels from Charles and Keith, blue loafer heels from Celine, black suede platform doll shoes from Forever 21, rust-colored fringe heels from Sole Society, paint-splattered wedges from Jellybean, wooden blue wedges from the Greenhills bazaar, black platform peep-toe heels from SM Parisian, strappy black geometric heels from Aldo, orange wedges from Forever 21, blue and brown ankle-strap wedges from Lela Rose for Payless

Beauty Barrage: Manicure Monday - Rose Gold New Year's Eve Nails

Hello! The Blue Purse is on holiday break at the moment (life is pretty darn hectic this time of the year) but I just had to make a quick post because this is all about tomorrow, New Year's Eve!

Stacked love rings and bangles from Forever 21

I was planning on glittery nails this year for NYE, but I went with metallic instead. Orly Rage was just too pretty to resist! I've been obsessed with rose gold for a while now, as well as mixed metals, so the polish was simply perfect. 

I had my nails done at David's Podium earlier and found this shade randomly. I need to get my own bottle because I'm obsessed!

I'm using my phone to post this entry and my phone camera didn't capture the color that well. I'll post a better picture taken with my camera in daylight sometime. 

Happy Holidays!

Other lacquer love posts can be found in the Manicure Monday tag. 

Clothes Spin: Navy Zara Trousers Love! [Throwback Thursday]

If you know me you would know that I love my Zara trousers. They're completely versatile and can be worn a lot of ways. I have a semi-androgynous style as well, and these pants, which are a bit baggy on top and tapered at the bottom really work for me. I have three colors -- khaki, gray, and navy.

For this Throwback Thursday, I'm taking a stroll back in time and going through the various ways I wore my pair of navy Zara trousers. It's one of the easiest pieces in my closet because I can just throw it on like jeans and go.

Casual Edge

Edgy peep-toe booties made a big difference in this outfit.

Silver circle earrings from Boracay's D'Mall, periwinkle top from Human, Longchamp LM Metal bag in Steel, navy Zara trousers, gray Aldo watch, silver and black knuckle ring from Forever 21, black peep-toe booties from SM Dept. Store   

White and Khaki

It can be worn with just a white t-shirt and brogues.

White t-shirt and beige brogues from Forever 21, black quilted Mango bag, silver Giordano watch

Clothes Spin: What We Wore on that One Hot Summer Day - Our Prenup Session [Flashback Friday]

Hello, Flashback Friday! The hubby and I have finally posted our prenup pics --  One Hot Summer Day -- as well as the behind-the-scenes photos at our wedding blog, That Happy Day. It's only fitting then to document what we wore that day on this blog. 

We wanted a casual prenup. We didn't want it to look like a movie or have magazine poses. We didn't want to act differently from how we would typically act. We also didn't want to have props or wear stuff that we wouldn't usually wear. We just wanted it to show us spending time with each other on a normal day at one of our favorite places, UST -- the place where we first met. 

Our only concept for the shoot was modern color-blocking, which was the overall theme of our wedding. We chose orange and blue outfits, our favorite colors. When he wore a blue top, I wore an orange top, and when I wore something blue, he wore orange. We really went orange and blue all the way, from the proposal day (when we didn't know we wanted blue and orange for our theme yet), to our wedding day.

On A: denim Cotton On shirt, orange jeans and brown sneakers from Forever 21 Men

On J: orange Bayo top, navy Zara trousers, blue and orange Punkberry ribbon flats

Beauty Barrage: Manicure Monday - Silver Glitter

Monday is almost coming to a close, so I'm rushing this post. I didn't do Manicure Monday last week because I knew I was having my nails done later in the week. I attended a wedding last Thursday with the hubby, so I went to the salon to get a blow-out and a mani-pedi that morning. 

The thing is, I have some standards when I get my nails professionally done. I'm really super critical of manicurists because come on, if they do a bad job, I might as well just do it myself at home. I have only found two manicurists I like at two separate salons that are both at the Podium - one from David's named Flor, and the other at Bench Fix that I forgot the name of because I've only been there once. I haven't tried the Nail Spa at Shang and the nail salons at Megamall though. If you've tried any of them, please let me know in the comments! Don't ask me about other places that aren't in the general Ortigas/Kapitolyo area though, because I just go to the salons near my neighborhood for convenience.

That day though, I was pressed for time so I decided to just go to the David's along Shaw. I really don't like the manicurist there, because I have had my nails done multiple times there before (since it's the closest proper salon near me), but it really seems like she doesn't make enough of an effort to do her job well. I had no choice though, and I thought I'd give her yet another chance, but sadly, I was disappointed once again. Sorry but I just have to rant.

See, I usually bring my own nail polish, especially the ones that I have a hard time putting on myself since I'm so manicure-challenged. Since I was wearing glittery silver shoes and accessories that day, I decided to do silver glitter on my nails. I brought Forever 21 Love and Beauty Nail Polish in Moonbeam for the base and Nicole by OPI's Make U Smile from the Justin Bieber collection to put on top of it. We accidentally ruined one of the nails (the manicurist and I moved in opposite directions at the same time) but I noticed after I left the salon that she didn't bother doing it over. She just tried to patch it up with more nail polish which turned out looking a bit lumpy. She also didn't bother spreading the glitter around my nails. I told her to do two coats so the glitter would show up more and she did, but she didn't make sure that the glitter was visible on every nail. It looked very inconsistent. There were also some blank spots. They're hardly noticeable but they're there. Frustration!

Anyway, bad manicurist aside, I liked the combination of Forever 21's Moonbeam and Nicole by OPI's Make U Smile. Metallic nails just add instant bling to a look. 

I wanted an elegant look since I was going to a wedding. The silver foil of Moonbeam looked great with Make U Smile's big hexagon and small dot glitter. 

My Instagram pic of it last Thursday didn't quite catch the details but it looked very classic and polished.

Clothes Spin: What I Wore on the Day I Said Yes [Throwback Thursday]

It's Throwback Thursday! My husband and I got married last April, and we are currently in the process of going through our prenup and wedding photos. I'm feeling quite nostalgic, so I decided to look back on what I wore that day, when he asked and I said yes.

I didn't know I was going to get proposed to that day, so I was really glad I dressed up! I was feeling girly and went for a semi-bohemian outfit. I was so happy I wore orange that day too, since the husband wore blue and those two colors became our wedding colors. It was such a happy day.

p.s. The entire story can be found at our wedding blog, That Happy Day.

Gold Forever 21 hoop earrings, brown Liz Claiborne shoulder bag, Forever 21 orange crop top, sheer orange skirt from Landmark, Tomato orange tassled loafers

Clothes Spin: Rain Gear [Flashback Friday]

This rainy, stormy, gloomy week brought to mind my favorite rain gear. It also made me mourn for my beloved Forever 21 army boots that I wore until they got beat up to the point of no return. I need new boots.

Clothes Spin: Dressed-up White [Throwback Thursday]

Time for a Throwback Thursday look post! This is an outfit I wore to an unusual wedding. The guests were all required to wear white -- the girls, white dresses, and the boys, white shirts with khaki pants. That's because the wedding was Star Wars-themed, and the groom wore a Jedi-inspired black suit with bright blue accents, and the bride wore a light lavender gown. (Holla, Jho and Ron!)

The dress code was easy for the hubby, because almost all guys have white shirts and khaki pants in their wardrobe, right? It threw me for a loop though. Aside from the fact that my closet mainly consists of black, gray, blue, and orange clothes, I'm not really fond of white. I can be such a klutz and white is too high-maintenance for me. It also reminded me of Lo from the MTV Show Laguna Beach, when she said something like, "I would love a cute white dress, but I haven't found any. All white dresses I've seen are either too tacky or trashy." That was actually exactly what happened. I had a hard time finding anything that looked modern and wasn't made of lace (too itchy for me).

I like sartorial challenges though, so even if I was tempted to just ignore the dress code, I didn't give up. Eventually, I found a dress that suited my taste -- at SM, surprisingly, after scouring so many stores. Although it had a modern cut, I needed to give it another dimension. I put on silver accessories to dress it up, but my shoes added a pop of color and casual vibe to the outfit, since the boys were in khaki pants and all. Here go the pics, plus outfit deets for the hubby (my boyfriend at the time) and a couple of pics of us at the wedding under the cut.

Silver necklace and white dress from SM Dept. Store, silver bracelet bought from a cousin, silver heart connector ring bought from a friend, silver and white Giordano watch, paint splash Jellybean wedges

Clothes Spin: Blue and Beige [Throwback Thursday]

Okay so life happened today, and all I can do is a quick Throwback Thursday look. As you know from this post, I've been working on this site for a couple of years. From the time of its inception, I've started collecting product reviews and photos of looks, and now I have a pile of them in a folder in my hard drive and I don't want it all to go to waste -- hence this kind of post. At least I'll look different in every Thursday picture! When I post outfit pics here for Throwback Thursdays though it just means that the pics were taken awhile back, but I most likely still wear the outfits until now. When I love things, I wear them until they fall apart, heh.

So anyway, I chose this particular outfit because I've been annoyed at myself for a few weeks now because I lost the bag tag on my Coach purse. I know it's such a little thing, but it was really cute and it really made the bag interesting. I don't know how I lost it - I just noticed when the hubby and I got home after a long day of hopping from one place to another. It just sucks because I can't replace it (I don't want to buy the same bag) and thus, my beloved bag will never be the same.

Okay, enough with the rambling. Here's the outfit. I have no idea when this was taken though because the exif data is messed up. Sorry about that. p.s. Clearly, it was a no-makeup day, which is a little unusual for me.

Blue Zara dress with beige woven belt, gold robot necklace from some random tiangge, black Unarosa leggings, beige Coach Pebble Hobo mini bag, beige brogues from Forever 21